One of the many issues
that people of Assam face today is that of loneliness; loneliness in the
literal sense of not being able to be physically close to their loved ones.
With the dismal growth in the employment and quality education opportunities in
the state, thousands of Assam’s youth move out of the state to pursue higher
education or in search of employment. The Assam of the 1950s, which used to be
a prosperous state, on par with the national standards, is no more the same.
Assam today lags behind in almost all spheres of development, both social and
economic. The literacy rate is lower than national average, the per capita
income is below national average. Income from the tea gardens, which are the
pride of Assam, hardly stays within Assam, among its people. Investments in
Assam by private enterprises are negligible, despite incentives offered by the
state Government for setting up businesses in the state. Part of it can be attributed
to the fear among investors due to the long history of insurgency in the state.
The mass exodus of
youth every year has left a void in the families of the Assamese people. People
who have left Assam either for education or employment, do not wish to return
or are unable to return. The reasons can be many. One of them obviously is for
personal reasons, they like it better there than their own place. Another could
be they do not see enough opportunities in Assam which can best match their
standards and qualifications. The outcomes of which, are that parents of the
children, who are turning old, are increasingly being left alone to attend to
themselves. Although this practice of staying apart after children attain
maturity is quite common in many parts of the world, in India, until quite
recently, children too stayed along with or near their parents. This has led to
depression among many parents, who wish to be near their children, grandchildren
during festivals like Bihu, Dura Puja but are forced to remain content with
just a phone call. They are also skeptical of moving out of the state to the
place where their children reside due to adjustment issues and unwillingness to
leave the place where they had spent a considerable time of their life.
One of the things that
can help prevent this is provision of enough opportunities for the youth of
Assam, comparable to the other regions, so that they wish to stay back and are
equally happy as they would have been otherwise. Infrastructure development is
one of the issues that can help in bringing investors to the state. There are a
host of other problems too that will need to be addressed for this issue but as
a first, I think the Government should be really pro-active in understanding
the gravity of this situation. Only when we understand what and where we need
to focus our attention to, will we be able to push for the right policies in
this regard. Although this loneliness issue seems too naïve at this moment
today, it is surely going to be a cause of great concern in the next few years
or decades if we don’t do anything about it.
